Sometimes a cake shouldn’t be for celebration but should be made just because you want it and need it. This kind of cake is perfect for that purpose as it’s a quick mix, and although you might have to wait 50 minutes for it in the oven, as soon as it comes out there’s none of this cooling or pesky icing to deal with. I ate this one warm, the crumb hadn’t yet set so the texture was soft and toffee like. However, if you are not greedy and petulant like me then you can leave this cake and then leave it some more. The treacle, bananas and use of oil rather than butter mean that this cake will happily mature over a few days, it’s texture improving as the loaf gathers itself together and dampens with age. Although if you can leave this cake without going back for another slice every hour on the hour then you’re a stronger character than me.

I made this cake in homage to the amazing chocolate banana rye bread that Nyborg’s have been doing lately. They have a market stall in Ally Pally and since I have been unable to attend Ally Pally farmers’ market recently (due to my treacherous defection to Falkland Road Market N8) I had to console myself by coming up with this recipe.

Now this isn’t a bread like the one Nyborg’s sell, since I’m not a bread baker by any stretch of the imagination, it’s more of a teatime loaf cake. A chewy, dense, malty, sticky teatime loaf cake which warms your insides and is totally moreish. Now that Autumn has muscled its way in I have been naturally turning to dark cakes with intensity. Black treacle and muscovado sugar are a natural fit with the robust rye crumb, as the bananas aid and abet the sticky licky loaf. I chose Lindt chocolate, which I wouldn’t normally bake with, to scatter throughout, as I love the large flat pieces of chocolate which gently melt in the oven but are kept in gooey pockets throughout the loaf.

This cake is definitely made for the kind of weather I’m seeing right now. This week, not only have I unarchived my winter coat but I’ve also been sticking the heating on left right and centre, basically as soon as my husband leaves the house as he’s under the impression that if it ain’t December, then we make do with jumpers. The bitter winds and cold rain have come and sucked all the life out of our morning and evening walks with the puppy. As encouragement to make it out in the soggy chilled air, I definitely need this kind of treat to welcome me back into my centrally heated house, with a good strong cup of builders on the side.

It seems that I have given everything in my life over to preserving at the moment. It’s an addiction, I can’t get enough of filling up those jars and watching them stack up and up. My study, once the calm area of reading, writing and reflection has been invaded. Bookshelves have been emptied of books, books taken up to the attic as the jellies, relishes, pickles and jams have taken over.

I think that’s why I had a little moment this weekend in between the piccalilli and the apple and stem ginger chutney when I needed a recipe with instant results, something I could actually eat right that second. You know, dinner. And what better dinner than butter, eggs, sugar and flour. For a quick baking fix, you don’t need to go much further than a biscuit. The only impatience you need to overcome is that initial 20 minutes when the butter is being brought up to room temperature. Don’t let it kill your instant fix fun though, do what I do which is which is sit on my kitchen stool, a model of calmness as I leaf through a cookbook. Don’t shoot the butter murderous looks as the edges refuse to soften on this chilly August afternoon but instead… Oh alright then, after 10 minutes I might have
thrown the butter cubes unceremoniously into the kitcheanaid to let my faithful friend do the rest of the work. Whizzed up on high, it beats the butter around so it has no choice but to yield and when it does sugar is launched into the bowl as well and mixed for 3-4 minutes until light with air.

From there, it is no time at all to add the rest of the ingredients one at a time, mix, then add, mix then add. The egg, the vanilla, the flour, baking powder it all goes in before the chocolate chips, rosemary and fleur de sel are stiffly stirred in. At this point I forced myself to have the time and patience to weigh the dough out properly so my biscuits would all be the same size. It probably had a lot to do with the episode of GBBO I had just watched on catch up so was shamed into doing so, no one wants to get on the wrong side of Paul and Mary. However, this step was worth it as 12 minutes later, after the bake, seeing the biscuits lined up so uniformly, tweaked a little bit of perfectionist pride in me.

I made these biscuits a few weeks ago and for some reason didn’t write about them. A bit of a travesty as they really are quite delicious, I was happy therefore to have found an opportunity to whip them up again for inclusion in the blog. These are more biscuit than cookie as the idea is that they should be crisp, with pockets of oozing chocolate providing the only give in the biscuit. They are also a little bit grown up and refined and are absolutely ideal sitting on the saucer of a cup of tea when you need a bit of time off from pickling, jamming and jarring.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, rosemary leaves and fleur de sel then add to the rest of the biscuit dough along with the chocolate chips.

Bring the dough together to form a ball.

Bake the biscuits in two batches. Weigh out half the dough, setting one of the halves aside for a bit, then split into 10 balls, which should be about 30g each. Place each ball on a large baking tray and bake for 12-15 minutes when the edges should be turning golden.

Once the biscuits are ready, remove from the tray with a spatula and transfer to a cooling rack.

Take the second half of the dough and split into another 10 balls, place them on the baking tray and bake also for 12-15 minutes. Remove from the tray and transfer to a cooling rack.

Making your own chocolates from scratch is not a fly by night past time. It requires patience, a lovely long Sunday all to yourself, and plenty of practice. When you get it right it is so rewarding and sometimes when I look at the dinky little glossy parcels I impress myself that I managed to produce something so refined and expensive tasting in my own kitchen.

A few years ago when the new wave of chocolatiers were springing up all over London I was convinced that I had found my calling. I went to a number of classes by William Curley and Paul A Young and found the world of chocolate and everything they had to teach fascinating. Both men began their careers as pastry chefs and were lured into their focus by the endless possibilities that chocolate creates. It’s an easy subject to get excited by as it has a wonderfully rich history dating back to the Aztecs which I still remember from my visit to Bourneville from my early school days. It’s funny the history lessons that stick. The cultural impact of chocolate is immense, we almost seem to take it for granted in the current climate but it really is a very sacred ingredient and of course it’s the best food out there. Anyone who disagrees is just wrong.

I remember a girl at school who was allergic to chocolate which she wore as a badge of honour. We all felt tremendously sorry for her though, especially when it was ice cream and chocolate sauce day, which was the most delicious meal to be produced by our school kitchens. As soon as the chocolate hit the ice cream it hardened, but it wasn’t like the commercialised Magic Shell stuff you can get in America, it was thick, sticky and sweet. Who knows how they made it work, I think it involved lots of golden syrup, but that recipe must be on my blogging to do list.

These particular Bourbon Sea Salt Caramels are filled with boozy treacly caramel. They are simply wonderful, not too intense like some liqueur chocolates can be and not too sweet like some caramel. The salt adds the spark to get your palette going and so they quickly become addictive. Don’t worry though, they take so long to make that you certainly won’t be making them every day. They are a treat, both in terms of creating and eating.

The moulds I used to produce these chocolates were plastic moulds rather than silicone. They were about £4 and you can pick them up from numerous places online but I do recommend www.cakescookiesandcraftsshop.co.uk as they have such a wide variety. I have silicone moulds too but I find the plastic ones easier to use as there’s a lot of banging and scraping involved at the filling stage which is just a bit tricky with floppy silicone. Although a word to the wise, which should be obvious but is worth repeating if you are from my class of stupid. When I first invested in a lot of chocolate moulds I found them hard to clean – because they are. Do not though, put them in the dishwasher. Mine were not expensive catering moulds and they completely melted and rendered them useless. It put an end to my chocolate making career for a while whilst I saved up to buy new ones. So, like all of your most treasured of kitchen appliances, you will have to wash them up by hand.

Before you get going I would recommend watching one of the copious amounts of YouTube videos on how to fill chocolate moulds. Although I will try below it’s not easy to explain and like all the best techniques it’s much easier to understand if you watch it. Again, like anything, practice definitely makes perfect, I’m certainly no expert but the more times I make my own chocolates the better I am getting and the less chocolate I am wasting.

So, to fill your moulds you will need some tempered chocolate. You can see my earlier post on how to temper chocolate. Pour your tempered chocolate liberally over the mould until each individual chocolate pocket is full of chocolate and there is plenty of chocolate sitting on the surface of the mould, don’t be stingy, the excess can easily be recycled.

Bang it against the work surface. Then pick up the mould and tap it continually, turning it around and about so the chocolate is encouraged to eek into the corners of the pockets.

Then flip the mould completely upside down so you are holding it over a large bowl, letting all the chocolate drip out, carry on tapping and shaking the mould. When the drips lessen scrape the surface of the mould with a palette knife, with the mould still upside down.

Turn the mould back the right way and place down to let it settle for about 10 seconds. Turn it upside down again over the large bowl and the second wave of chocolate will now start to drip out. It won’t be a downpour like before as the chocolate will be thickening, just carry on tapping and shaking, and then scrape the surface with the palette knife again.

Now place the mould upside down on a sheet of baking parchment so the chocolate can slowly slip down the sides of the mould and there is an even layer of chocolate inside. Leave it for about 3-4 minutes, then lift it up and scrape the surface with a palette knife for the final time. Leave to set for about an hour before filling your chocolates.

Pour your filling into a piping bag and fill your chocolates carefully. Do not overfill. Then you can finish off your chocolates straightaway if your chocolate is in temper.

Pour a liberal amount of the tempered chocolate over the surface of the chocolate mould, making sure that each chocolate is generously covered. Then take your palette knife and scrape away the excess, it should leave a lovely thin film of chocolate over each individual chocolate. Leave to set for 1 hour before flipping your mould over. Each chocolate should pop out very easily.

Then coat your moulds with chocolate as described above, leave to set for about an hour.

Fill your chocolate moulds with the thickened caramel, making sure not to overfill.

Then you can straightaway pour some more tempered chocolate over the top of the mould, scrape a palette knife over the surface of the mould to remove the excess chocolate then leave to set for about 1 hour.

Turn the moulds upside down and the chocolates should happily drop out.

Making your own chocolate truffles and hand filled chocolates is a bit of an indulgence. It requires some time and a little bit of patience to learn how to temper chocolate but a whole lot of satisfaction. If you find the whole process slightly intimidating then have no fear, it is much easier than you think and once you have done it a few times, you may find making your own beautifully hand filled chocolates more than a little addictive. Or maybe that’s just me, but I don’t hear any complaints from friends or family.

Why do you temper chocolate?

Chocolate does not need to be tempered if you are melting chocolate for everyday use such as adding into cakes, buttercreams, biscuits or tarts. However, if the finished look and texture of the chocolate is important, such as if you are coating truffles, creating chocolate cages for your cakes, making Easter Eggs, chocolate bark or hand-filled chocolates then you will need to temper the chocolate. Chocolate bars we buy from the supermarket have already been tempered but if we melt the chocolate we are taking it out of temper, which means that the crystallisation of the cocoa butter will run amok. We need to take these crystals into line by regulating the temperature of the chocolate during the melting process. Think of the lovely glossy shine of an Easter egg right before you break it apart with a glorious crack. Without tempering, chocolate will bloom, giving it a dull white streaky appearance and with no satisfying snap, the chocolate will crumble miserably.

Marble Slab Method

There are two main ways of tempering chocolate, the marble slab method and the seeding method. The marble slab method gives a more consistent result if you are dealing with large amounts of chocolate but it does require you to have a large marble slab or countertop. The seeding method, which I am concentrating on here, is more suitable for tempering chocolate at home as you can temper less with more control and you are not pouring chocolate all over your kitchen. Well, at least that isn’t the aim.

Seeding Method

The only bit of special equipment required for the seeding method is a digital thermometer. I definitely have a preferred instrument – my thermapen (thermapen.co.uk) – as it reads the correct temperature immediately. Some of the cheaper digital thermometers do have to be held in the chocolate for thirty seconds or so to confirm an accurate reading which could be the pivotal amount of time to drive up your temperature and lead to over-tempering, plus they have annoying wires which really get in the way. Thermapens are not the cheapest but they come in different colours and if you shop around some of the colours are strangely cheaper than others.

How much chocolate do you need?

The minimum amount of chocolate you can temper successfully is about 300g, any less and you will have difficulty getting an accurate temperature reading. More chocolate means the temperature gauge can fully immerse in the chocolate, plus you will have more control with the more chocolate you are handling.

What kind of chocolate do you need?

I recommend buying good quality chocolate chips rather than relying on Green and Black bars, mainly due to the cost, as it is so much cheaper to buy chocolate in bulk online than in single bars from the supermarket. Also chocolate chips will melt much quicker which will really help when you are adding your seed back into your chocolate. Now, you also can’t buy just any old chocolate chips, if you are spending your afternoon tempering chocolate and covering some delicious chocolate truffles then you really want the chocolate to be of the utmost quality. Of course you can go absolutely crazy with this as different brands can be astronomical, but a good place to start is Belgian Callebaut chocolate chips as they are reasonably priced and are also delicious. I buy my chocolate online from www.chocolatetradingco.com as they have a very good selection. The different types of chocolate, dark, milk or white work to different crystallisation temperatures, so do read be careful that you follow the correct method for the correct type of chocolate.

I always wear latex kitchen gloves when handling melted chocolate as it will get all over your hands, your kitchen work surface, spoons, bowls and the floor. Melting, then cooling, melting, then cooling. Also chocolate moulds can be messy if you are not used to them. Gloves mean there is less temptation in licking all that molten goodness off your fingers and you can concentrate on the task at hand.

How many times can you re-temper chocolate?

You can re-temper the chocolate 3-4 times so don’t worry about the amount of chocolate you are melting if you actually only need about half. You can always have a few chocolate projects on the go. However, once you are done with the tempering you will usually have some spare melted chocolate left sitting in your bain marie. For this reason my home made chocolates always come with some brownies on the side as you do not want that chocolate to go to waste. Remove the chocolate from your bain marie whilst it is still in a molten state otherwise it will pretty impossible to shift once solidified.

Once you get the hang of it tempering chocolate is really quite easy. Making homemade chocolates is a lovely way to spend the day. The Easter weekend is the perfect time to tackle such a project with the obvious reward being lots of delicious chocolates which will cost a hell of a lot less than those you will get from your fancypants chocolatier and a million times more delicious than Terry’s All Gold.

How to Temper Dark Chocolate

For tempering white or milk chocolate look to the table below for the different temperatures to work with, the rest of the method remains the same.

Measure out your chocolate, then set aside ⅓ of the chocolate to create the seed.

Place the first ⅔ of the chocolate in a bain marie or a metal bowl set over a saucepan with 1 inch of hot water in it. The water should not be boiling and should not be touching the bottom of the metal bowl.

Melt the chocolate very slowly, stirring occasionally but always checking the temperature. You want it to reach 55°C which is usually just after all the chocolate has melted.

As soon as the melted chocolate reaches this temperature, remove the metal bowl from the heat and place on a tea towel to halt the heating.

Tip your ⅓ of chocolate seed into the molten chocolate and stir in very quickly and firmly so that the chocolate melts completely. You need the temperature to reduce to 27-28°C. This could take about 10 mins of constant stirring. If by this stage your seeded chocolate has not completely melted you need to remove the lumps as these will impair the finished temper of the chocolate.

As soon as the temperature has dropped to 27-28°C then place the metal bowl back on the heat and bring back up to 31-32°C. It can take just moments so keep stirring with the thermometer at hand to monitor.

When your chocolate has reached 31-32°C it is now in temper and is ready to use.

If you are able to keep the chocolate between 31-32°C whilst you are using it then that is ideal, however, if not then you need to work very quickly coating your truffles or filling your moulds otherwise the temperature will drop out of temper. As the chocolate cools it will thicken and become impossible to manipulate.

If you let your chocolate rise above 31-32°C then you will have over-tempered the chocolate and will need to start again by raising it to 55°C and taking it from there.

Table adapted from Paul A. Young’s Adventures in Chocolate

Quick Guide on How To Temper Chocolate

This is a long post so if you want a quick easy reference on the basic points of how to temper chocolate then download my quick guide on how to temper chocolate at the link below!

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Hello, so lovely of you to drop by. I am Georgina. I bake a lot, eat a lot and love writing about my kitchen adventures here. I run a gluten-free cake business and have a stall at the local farmer’s market selling my cakes and preserves. I have 2 cats, 1 dog, 1 husband and a delightful toddler who runs me ragged.